Lost Girl
by TweetyPie82
Summary: Episode 'Lost Son' SPOILERS: I just was wondering what would happen if Ginny was around when Speed was killed and how she would react. This story is an as is, but if you want more, please let me know and I'll try to add to it.
1. The Death

_Disclaimer: I do not own CSI: Miami or anything of its relevance. I do own Ginny Pierce and her relation to Horatio, so no stealing, pirating, or anything of that nature without asking. I do apologize to those that are faithful Speed followers, but I have to write a sad piece and this is how I would perceive the episode if Ginny had known Speed before the 'Bad Thing' had happened and how she would've reacted to the news._

**Lost Girl**

Ginny Pierce was waiting in her best friend and big brother's lab as he was away with her uncle following a lead. She looked up as her uncle and her other 'family' members enter the labs. She hurriedly gets up and rushes to them before recognizing the look on everyone's face. "Where's Speed?" She asked a little eager for their tastes.

Horatio Caine walked back into CSI headquarters after witnessing the death of one of his best CSIs and good friend. He looked up at the question from the young girl and then to the rest of his team, who the girl had considered the rest of her family after her own parents were killed and he took her in as the only living relative she had. He excused the two of them and led his niece up to his office. He sat down on the ugly green couch up against the wall and coaxed the girl next to him. "Speed is gone, Ginny." He quietly told her as his armed wrapped itself around her shoulders.

"What do you mean he is gone? Did he go home? I didn't see him get his bike or his hummer." Ginny answered as she got up shoving her uncle's arm off of her and walked to the window facing out. She could clearly see her big brother's motorbike and his departmental hummer. "When is he expected back? He promised me that I could help him in his lab." She added as she turned to face her uncle.

"He is not coming back, Ginny. There was a shooting while we were following up a lead, and…" Horatio let the sentence trail off knowing that his niece would be able to put two and two together. He wasn't disappointed as she immediately took it back up.

"No! No! No! I want to see Speed!" Ginny demanded as she twirled to face her uncle after returning her glaze to the outside parking lot. She saw as he slowly nodded his head and got up from the couch before leaving the office. She followed him to the autopsy studio and looked down into the floor as she watched the closest thing she has to a mom stand over Speed's body covered in a sheet. She watched as Alexx reached for a scalpel and she immediately banged on the floor to ceiling window in front of her. "Speed! Get up! Get up, Speed!" She yelled over and over for five minutes. She didn't even notice that her uncle and Alexx had let her do this until she confirmed that her big brother wasn't getting up telling her that this is one big prank he decided to pull on her.

Horatio looked to Alexx Woods as his niece worked through the last stages of her denial with a lost look on his face and noticed that his medical examiner returned the look. He only registered as his niece demanded that his belated CSI get up, and looked down at her wanting to comfort her not really knowing how when he is doing the same thing she is. Next thing he knew, his niece had given up her pounding and demands before running out of the room. He stood there knowing he had to go after her, but also wanting to give her time to grieve to herself. He knew that the two of them had a special immediate bond from the first moment they met and this is tearing her apart from the inside. He saw Alexx motion for him to go after her and he merely nodded his head in answer before following suit.

Ginny realized that this was no joke from her friend, and hightailed it out of the autopsy studio to Speedle's lab. She grabbed his lab coat and curled up into a distant corner as she hugged the one thing she had left to hold to her and cried. She breathed in her friend's scent off of his lab coat and didn't even realize that her uncle was not too far behind her. She hugged Speed's coat closer to her and curled even further up into her final corner. "Why Speed? You promised me you would keep your gun clean. You've never broken your promises for me." She whimpered into the coat.

Horatio immediately walked into Timothy Speedle's lab and knew that was where his niece had disappeared to. He could hear her faint sobs from somewhere in the room and started to slowly walk around it until he found her hiding place. He kneeled down in front of her before sitting himself next to her and gathering her into his arms. "Shh, I know Ginny and I'm sorry. You would've found out sooner or later and I didn't want you to learn of it off of the evening news." He consoled her as he let her cry all over the front of his shirt. "Do you want to keep his lab coat?" He gently asked knowing that she would jump at the chance to keep some type of material possession of his.

"He promised to take me riding with him tomorrow. He promised me that I could help him in his lab this afternoon. Why couldn't it have been the suspect? Why did it have to be Speed, Uncle Horatio? He can't leave me, he PROMISED me he would take me riding. HE PROMISED!" Ginny continued to hold her big brother's lab coat in her hand and pounded both of them on her uncle's chest. "He NEVER breaks his promises! NEVER! NOT TO ME!" She cried even harder as she continued to pound her fists.

Horatio wrapped his arms tighter around her and let his own tears fall. He held her close and refused to let her go for the longest time. She had lost her parents, and now she lost the closest thing she has to a big brother and best friend today. He hated to see her this way, but knew that there wasn't a thing he could do to help her. "Ginny, you know he told me something before he…" He couldn't finish the sentence, but he decided to finish his statement. "He told me to tell you that as a big brother, he loves you and that he was sorry he had to break his promises." He could feel the fight leave her small frame and he could still hear her cry for her loss. They sat there until everyone else had left and the night shift came in.


	2. The Funeral

_Disclaimer: See part 1._

_A/N: I've had enough readers tell me that they would love to see where the story would take Ginny and everyone involved. So, I've added another chapter and if I receive enough reviews I'll add another one. So enjoy this until I've got more people telling me to continue._

Lost Girl 

A few days later, Ginny and her adoptive family were sitting at a graveside funeral. Ginny had tears coming down her cheeks because she knew whose funeral she was attending. Timothy Speedle's parents were sitting in the front, his mom was crying into a handkerchief as she clasped her silently grieving husband's arm. When it came time to view the body one final time, Ginny had got up and walked off. She couldn't bring herself to see his unsmiling face and not cry even harder at the loss of her friend and big brother.

Ginny had talked her uncle into letting her have Speed's bike. She looked back one last time and muttered, "I'll miss you, Speed." Her uncle had taken his hummer to the funeral, but she had talked him into letting her ride her big brother's bike. She wanted it to be one last ride connected to him on his bike while her uncle had taken a few other team members. She climbed on the bike and added, "I'll take good care of your baby for you, Speed." She then started up the bike and took off with a fresh set of tears in her eyes.

Horatio had noticed that his niece didn't stay to view the body. He saw her out of his peripheral vision as she got on Speed's bike and left the cemetery. He then did his leadership duty and gave his and his niece's condolences to the grieving Speedles. He had a feeling on where his niece had gone to, but he also needed to finish up here first. "Mr. and Mrs. Speedle, I would like to offer my and my niece's condolences. She looked up to your son as a big brother." At the older woman's question of where she was he answered, "She had taken Speed's bike and left the services. Not too long ago, she had lost both of her parents to a horrible murder and now she is having trouble coping with this. She completely fell apart when I told later that day. Since then she started to shut everyone else out."

Speed had given Ginny a key to his apartment just a few weeks ago. He told her to use it if she ever found herself in trouble and he wasn't home. She had used the key for the first time and let herself into his place. She wasn't in the trouble that he had in mind when he had given her the key, but she was in trouble nonetheless. She walked through his place remembering the first time she came to Miami. She walked into the spare bedroom and stopped in the doorway unable to go in. It was in that room where the two of them bonded deeply. Her uncle was under investigation for a mass murder, and she had the luck of showing up at CSI headquarters on the first day of the investigation. Speed was put in charge for as long as it took the team to clear her uncle from the charges. Until that had happened, she wasn't allowed in his total care and she had stayed here with her friend. Tears started to fall down her cheeks as she remembered waking up constantly with nightmares about her father's beating punishments and how Speed reacted when she told them to him. He would hold her until she felt better and safe, and promise her that if her father were still alive he would've made sure that her father was facing a prison term other than St. Peter. She then moved to the master room and just looked inside, and she couldn't bring herself to disturb it as it just screamed his presence. She made her way back to the living room and sat down on the couch. The same night she came, she remembered that her other friend and big brother, Eric Delko, had crashed in the exact same spot. She pulled a pillow to her and cried herself to sleep.

Horatio and the team had gone over to Speed's apartment after the funeral to have the wake, and to talk to his parents about his remaining possessions. He was too wrapped up in his thoughts to look around as he came in and sat down at the kitchen table. His ballistic expert, Calleigh Duquesne, walked in behind him and right behind her was his underwater recovery specialist, Eric Delko. Then came in Tim's parents, and following up the rear was the medical examiner, Alexx Woods. They conversed in the kitchen for a while not venturing into the other rooms. Eric then excused himself to use the restroom, and then disappeared out of the door leading to the living room. He wasn't gone but for only a few moments before returning, "H. You should come see this." He said before disappearing from everyone's view again. Horatio got up and followed his CSI into the living room. He could feel the rest of the team follow suit before he stopped to the side of Eric. He quietly walked over to the figure of his niece clenching one of Speed's couch pillows and crouched down in front of her. He studied her for a few seconds, before reaching out a hand and soothing her red hair out of her tear stained face.

"She feels lost and came here to say her final goodbyes." Horatio told the assembled group in a quivering voice. He then gently leaned forward and kissed where he had brushed her hair away before standing up. He looked at all the adults before him with unshed tears pooling in his eyes, and looked into everyone tears stained face. "I want everyone's promise that no matter how hard she tries and pushes us away, we will not let her and give up on her."

Calleigh thought about how the girl had been trying to distance herself emotionally from her over the last few days. Not caring what happens around her, mostly how she is losing interest in the lab. She remembers clearly how excited the girl was when Ginny helped her lift a print off of an unspent bullet when she first arrived in Miami and at CSI. She told the girl that she could help prove her uncle innocent quietly behind the scenes there at the lab. She remembered the clear excitement written all over the child's face, and she suddenly knew that she would do anything to see that again. "I promise Horatio." She told her boss and friend.

Eric remembered the first time he met her. He had stopped by to see if he had missed anything while he was off, and found out that his friend Speed was taking care of her until Horatio's name was cleared from a mass murder. She was cheeky and quick-witted, but extremely smart. She had made the grouchy, unsmiling Speed laugh and smile. Her good humor was infectious and she had the ability to keep everyone's spirits up, seemingly without having to think about it. The past few days, he had noticed that Ginny was just a shell of her former self. She had stopped cracking jokes at everything, and her astuteness had abruptly came to a stop that day. Right now, everyone needed her to be herself not this girl that suddenly didn't care what happened to her. He would do anything to hear her laugh and crack a joke again. "You can count on me, H." He said to his boss.

Alexx thought that the child was her boss's kid at first, and they had seemed so much alike and still do until Speed had died. She saw the intelligence behind the girl's eyes and how she took everything in. She noticed how Ginny was always asking questions, and how fast and correctly she worked puzzles. Her uncle had the same talent, and he had a way to mentally organized things in his mind. The girl also had that talent as well. She noticed how she had unofficially adopted the girl as a daughter, because Ginny had lost her own in a violent way. Lately, Alexx had noticed how the team's child had lost interest in everything that she once found exciting and she then knew that she would do anything to see the girl they all came to know and love come back again. "Horatio, you have my word that I will not give up on her." She told him as a fresh set of tears came to her eyes.


End file.
